Precision Cooking Fires Up the Crowd

By Chris Maxcer
May 14, 2014 6:59 AM PT

A new crowdsourced Kickstarter project has blasted out of the gate and
racked up more than $1,000,000 in funding -- its goal was a modest $100,000 -- with 34 days to go.
The project? The
Anova Precision Cooker.

At first glance, the Anova Precision Cooker looks like a massive
electronic thermometer with a plug-in cord. It's used for the
sous-vide style of cooking, which is cooking food in sealed plastic
bags inside a temperature-controlled water bath.

That's right, you place a slab of beef inside a plastic bag then cook
it in a pot of hot water.

You might be scratching your head here, but more than 6,700 early
backers of the project are already sold on the concept.

High-End Restaurant Quality Cooking

The benefit of sous-vide cooking is the ability to very precisely
control the temperature at which your food will cook. At the same
time, it helps your food retain moisture and cook evenly throughout.

A
steak's interior, for example, will cook to a similar consistency as
its outer edges -- rather than grill cooking, which might result in
the steak being seared and overcooked on the outside while being rare
on the inside.

A sous-vide steak retains great moisture throughout and has a
consistently cooked texture. But what about those fancy grill marks?
Apparently high-end restaurants will cook a sous-vide steak in the
water bath, then toss it on a hot grill for a few seconds to give it
the desired grill marks.

Of course, the same principle applies for vegetables and combinations of foods.

Inside the Anova Tech

The Anova Precision Cooker contains a heating element and a propeller
blade. With a clamp system, you attach it to the inside of a large pot
of water. You place the food in standard plastic zip bags, which you
clip to the edge of your pot. With the LCD interface on the top of
the heating element, you set the cooking temperature and time. Then
you walk away and do something else.

According to Anova, chicken comes out juicy and tender. Vegetables are
bright and flavorful.

Of course, you need to know how long to cook a bag of carrots or cauliflower and at
what temperature -- and Anova has an iPhone app for that. Use the app to
find the food you want to cook, adjust the settings to match the size
or amount, and tap the start button on your iPhone. The Anova
Precision Cooker does the rest.

The Rewards

All of the early bird specials are gone, but project backers can still
get a white or black Anova Precision Cooker for US$159. For $229, you
can get two Anova Precision Cookers so you can cook multiple dishes at
the same time. Are these great deals? Anova says each cooker will
retail for about $169.

The estimated delivery is slated for October.

Will It Happen?

There is more than $1 million in funding for the Anova
Precision Cooker, and Anova team already has created and delivered a
successful cooker, the Anova 1, which became the first affordable
($199) immersion circulator for the home chef.

The new
Kickstarter-backed cooker is more affordable, more flexible, easier to
clean, and has its touchscreen interface moved to the iPhone, which
brings up the biggest possible inhibitor to meeting the timeline:
While the Anova team has manufacturing experience, it's possible that
the iPhone app might not be ready as the hardware starts
to ship.

Of course, you don't have to use the iPhone app to use the cooker -- it also has manual controls.

TechNewsWorld columnist Chris Maxcer has been writing about the tech industry since the birth of the email newsletter, and he still remembers the clacking Mac keyboards from high school -- Apple's seed-planting strategy at work. While he enjoys elegant gear and sublime tech, there's something to be said for turning it all off -- or most of it -- to go outside. To catch him, take a "firstnamelastname" guess at WickedCoolBite.com. You can also connect with him on
Google+.